What Coal Miners Think About Climate Change 

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” ~Upton Sinclair

The trick is not to make the mistake Britain made in the 1980s by abandoning mining communities with no alternative employment or training and letting the towns decay

I doubt that if each coal miner was offered a renewable energy job with an easier workload, higher pay, and better benefits that they'd still be so attached to coal.

Bravo to the reporter. His transparency was really refreshing. Giving a breakdown of his previous work history and his background so the viewer could get more understanding of where he was coming from and why was also a nice touch. Good stuff 👌

So many people in here missing the point. It is vital that you give all the families that are dependant on the coal industry for their livelihoods a worthy alternative instead of just closing mines down and calling them dumb. It also actually doesn't matter either if they believe in climate change or not, give these people a REAL alternative and we can all go further together.

One takeaway is that these guys work in coal because there is no other alternative but for coal. But in these small tiny towns that are only there BECAUSE of coal, of course, there is no other source of industry. Good reporting.

I swear the coal miner who ran over a protestor with his horse is surprisingly the most moderate and sympathetic of all the coal miners interviewed lol. He believed in climate change, and said the only reason he works for coal/defends coal is because his livelihood depends on it.

One of the most difficult components of this problem, is that these towns were usually only very small places before industry moves in. Therefore, a large majority of the people working in these areas have usually migrated within a reasonably short amount of time, and are trapped by debt, and lack of alternative local opportunity. I personally believe the best policy is one of transition - stop encouraging coal expansion and the migration of people while at the same time stimulating other industry elsewhere.

The professionalism of the reporter was outstanding. He has been living his life supporting a cause and he’s talking to people that don’t believe in the basic truth of it.

I worked in the coal mining industry as an engineer, production supervisor, and project manager mostly in southwestern pennsylvania (greene county). I'm now a nurse. It's a feast or famine industry that is dying. It was fun and I miss the hell out of those guys. But never again for me.

Coal and coal miners aren’t the problem. The problem is greedy corporations.

I grew up out in the bush, though I live in the city now. Seeing life going by in these communities makes me feel a little homesick. The way the houses are, the way the schools are. Even simple things, like the way businesses are set up. I can understand why they'd want to protect their way of life. These aren't bad people. They're people whose whole life depends on coal mining. No wonder that don't care about climate change: If we took away their industry, then they may as well have been ravaged by climate change in full force. For those who've lived in those places their whole lives it really would be the end of the world.

Yeah, it’s not like Australia has sunlight or anything…

This is why we need a system that can support people as they transition into a different career, otherwise they will always try to defend their livelihood at the cost of progress (or the planet), many industries are like this

I work in the steel industry in the UK as an engineer, I am 24 and very clued into climate change, the main reasons which I take from this video is that people have no other source of good income in that area. Its a simular situation to the steel works in port Talbot which I work in, which produces alot of air pollution in the area. It is such a massive provider of high paid jobs that if it was to close or down size then the whole community would be impacted not just for the people who work at the plant.

this is the problem when you base your entire town on one industry - if the industry dies, so does the town.

The disbelief from old people that likely won't be alive to deal with the implications of CC is scary. They don't believe because that's how they made their livelihood.

The fact that corporations have such a strong influence on people's lives that they cant afford to do anything differently is horrible

As a farmer I can assure you that climate change is real. Unexpected rains, floods and heat are the challenges we as farmers are facing since last 4 years.these unexpected sudden changes are effecting the yield Edit-: this is what I have observed

One of the hardest things to come to grips with is nothing truly lasts forever, at least not in its original form. Change may not come all at once but it will come and you need to be ready for it or at least accept it. Whole industries will die. New ones will arise. Some for good, some for ill. Some will benefit, some won't.

These are the exact same arguments we were making in high school 25 years ago. I was raised in Queensland and have very strong feelings regarding the natural beauty of Western Queensland. There is a solution, we just need to have civil conversations, like you have here, in order to deliver a future that is not beholden to Coal Mines. I sincerely appreciate the people that worked in the mines who want a better future too. Thank you for your work! I know how dangerous it can be to have a different opinion in Australia, let alone, Western Queensland.

I'm West Australian "Born and bred" and I honestly hate how much our government is influenced by the coal industry and by people at least adjacent to climate change deniers. I feel for the people in these towns who for generations have been miners, but we cant sacrifice our world so that some people want to keep their career or tradition. I think sometimes the complete denial of climate change is a safety mechanism, people dont like being told they've been fighting just for things to end. The people in towns like Meekathara have been struggling already, taking away the mining income is a death sentence. So to stay alive they're just trying to ignore the inevitable end. Hell in Meekathara we all were buying the majority of our groceries from a Coles Express petrol station because it was the only way to be able to afford bread, milk and pasta. The local shops were massively overpriced and were struggling to stay open due to loss of business and also from constant food thefts. It's a slow death they're already experiencing, they need to adopt to the idea of at least a secondary income source... West Australia should be shifting to developing a Silicon Valley of sorts around one of these towns, upgrade their infrastructure, train technicians, engineers and scientists, develop new technology, get CSIRO involved and private funding to start silicon chip fabrication and lithium batteries. Start the shift now, rather than waiting for the day the mines actually close

The best argument against coal miners that don't want to lose coal (and they don't for a very valid reason mind you) is that governments should have paid training programs for miners to learn how to build and maintain renewable energy sources. We will always need more energy, and it will always need to be maintained. Why not train these people who are obviously very hard working people to do this job and pay them to learn? Market it as both a safer and healthier job that has no chance of being phased out? It's a win win for everyone.

Kim, you're doing a great job. We need to stop the mining, but we also need to provide alternatives for all the miners too. We can't close their mines and leave them to pick up the pieces. Hopefully, we can accomplish both asap

I think this documentary makes pretty clear that it's a waste of time to try to persuade individual coal miners. Pressure on politicians is the way to go and then giving these fellas an alternative.

I actually did work in the coal industry, in the UK, at a time when "clean coal" and carbon capture looked like it could provide the sustainable future. You certainly never found such hardline polarised attitudes in the industry in Britain, indeed there were many, myself included who thought without a genuinely effective way to mitigate carbon emissions, the industry had no real future. In the end the mine closed and the carbon capture powers station was never built. The person making this video has made a very important step, as Desmond Tutu, I think, said "if you wish for peace, don't talk to your friends, talk to your enemies", this is similar in a different context.

Wow what an awesome piece, would love to see some regular follow ups with the same legends now that the LNP are out of power. Plenty have thought of the idea to rehabilitate so many mines across Queensland but to do it as a transition piece and to try and repair Country, well that is a Vision, would be great to see it happen. I hope the relationships you have made stay active for a long time Kim, thank you :)

Just so you know… the folks at the start. This is not Australia or Australians. Super sad. But… watch until the end. This was 1 minute if the worst behaviour. There’s some real gems in here.

It really doesn't matter what they think about it. This dying industry has to go. We should take care of the people who lose their jobs, but it's well past time to accept objective reality and reorient energy policy accordingly.

it seems like those miners are not at all used to talking about climate change. I think they're kinda surprising each other when some of them admit that they don't believe that climate change is fake, or even that industrial activity has something to do with it. I also think it's interesting that coal miners on one hand feel a need to deny that coal burning has a climate impact, but on the other hand these guys, who mine coal with massive machinery, whose families for many generations have mined coal, know better than almost anybody else how absolutely massive the global scale of coal mining is. yet they're supposed to pretend that it's ridiculous that burning all that coal changes the atmosphere in significant ways. they would know better than to heat their house with an indoor coal fire with no chimney, but when it's out in the atmosphere, the combustion gases are supposed to do nothing regardless of the amount?

Turns out most lower-class people aren't willing to go hungry and potentially die for the benefit of people they don't know who largely live in big cities, who'd have guessed? It's a sucky situation, on either side. I'm not gonna lie, it hurts to think about both. On some level this is a microcosm of status warfare, as thinking about the future is a luxury only allowed to those with means to care. This is also painful in the medical field, for the lower-education technicians and nurses. It's hard job, you don't get paid a lot, and people are losing their livelihoods from the cost (in the USA, that is) of the services you're the face of. It's a unique kind of pain that cuts like nothing else, because it's a job you do for people's benefits, but you see it hurting them all the same and you can't do anything about it.

Coal: Kids out of high school in the coal towns are basically handed a life at 18 that includes a large progressive salary structure, union benefits, housing, (depending on location), and a great pension. Who is going to compete with that? IF, ( a big IF), society plans on replacing coal, you are going to have to understand exactly what is being taken away. I would be interested to hear how many miners own their own homes, cars...etc..... Look at the presenter...no assets and a dodgy future.

I always kind of laugh and also feel bad when miners say you cant shut down coal, that you need it. The whale oil industry used to be collossal before oil and synthetic sources ruined them. We didnt keep whale oil around though, we moved to something better, more sustainable.

They're not thinking of climate change, they're thinking of their jobs

What the video didn't really make clear is that most of the people working in the mines in central QLD are not living in those little towns, they are driving or flying in and staying in camps. Most of them don't care about the little towns and have no interest in moving out there. They want to live on the coast somewhere, and working in the mines affords a swankier lifestyle than working in the city does. You only have to look at places like Yeppoon or Mackay to see where all the money goes.

Shutting down mines is a very tricky thing, the Aussie government should learn from the mistakes of the UK where successive governments ripped the heart out of towns and even cities in the UK with nothing to replace it. Mining does need to stop, but people need jobs, hopefully a peaceful solution can be reached.

Most of these miners seem to have an intuitive understanding that coal and burning it is simply bad for people, from a health perspective. The argument they keep preaching is there needs to be an alternative. They understand the control this industry has over them and would welcome a change but can't or more likely won't put it together that mandating it is the only way that happens. They have too much to loose.

Just wanted to add, you all having a chat will change things. I grew up in coal mining towns in Appalachia in the United States. The coal mining industry was taken away without anything else being brought in. You cannot expect people to change unless industry is brought in prior to help them sustain their lives. People will choose health over coal, but you have to give them that choice!

Unfortunate solar farms, and wind farms are not clean and green as we are led to believe. Both of them are extremely disruptive to the surrounding ecosystems. And they regularly produce large amounts of difficult if not impossible to recycle materials. There are no easy answers. But the much smaller, safer nuclear reactors are tiny and extremely efficient. Much of the rare metals needed to produce all the electric cars are being mined illegally by child labor in places like the Congo 🇨🇩 🤔 . Activists and politicians have us putting the cart before the horse. We're are already facing the reality here in Switzerland of what to do with the thousands of old electric bicycle batteries we've been accumulating for over 5 years now.

So, perhaps part of the reason WHY these mines exist is to power countries who are building your vehicles, your drones, your cameras, etc. You can make this documentary because some people in China and elsewhere make the equipment cheaply enough for you to be able to afford it. A large part of that process involves cheap energy - and you need only look at what's happened to China's energy grid when they boycotted all Aussie coal to see those effects. So while, on one hand, I understand the global warming perspective and do not deny the science, what I ALSO notice is that the activists seem to have NO PROBLEM using the tools provided to them by that cheap energy. If these workers need to do without a job, perhaps you need to also do away with the things those jobs are directly providing to you as well... Or, why not go to the SOURCE of the need and protest there (China, for instance). Ah... Yeah... Probably wouldn't want to do that.

Black Lung Matters....

The handful full of people who make the big money from coal are hiding behind the low wage workers and their families. It is up to society to educate these people and give them alternative way of earning a living.

Great video! Those conversations are important and it’s good to see someone taking initiative and having them!

If the miners want their side of the story to be heard, they better stop ignoring the climate scientists' side; you can't expect to be listened to if you won't listen.

What I'm observing is that when you got entire towns dependant on one major, reliable source of income for hundreds of years, there better be something just as reliable available to replace it. Plus you've got generations programmed (for good and bad) for one particular way of living. So it's no wonder why they're resistant. Communities have been abandoned rather than supported. Same is happening to disabled people like myself. We've always had to rely on other people to keep us alive. Before social security, families either took care of us or abused us. Now, it's the taxpayers and maybe family. But it's painful when I hear that we're supposed to not have any assistance because we're lazy. Like coal miners are not stupid or inconsiderate. We've got a system that has room for improvement and I'm not sure how it'll happen

18:46 man says climate change is "a big money grabbing fraud" 23:29 SAME MAN "I do believe that we are affecting the climate"

GREAT video again Vice. I appreciate the reporting, fantastic to get people to just open up and be honest. It is a part of the world I would have never had the chance to get a perspective from.

I worked for a demolition company that would buy and tear down old coal plants. One of the main thing many don’t realize coal is all they know and have. There is no other form of money for them. No one wants to help bring up new jobs. That’s also why opioids tend to run high in the areas I worked in

the more I look at Australian politics, the more I'm convinced it's just upside down United States...

We should forget about climate change ,we have care about jobs and making profit, and destroy our planet 🤣.let the future suffer right

We can’t just shut off coal because we still need energy. We should have been transitioning into green energy a long time ago

Awesome work with this doco. Love your energy and the way you make people feel safe to explore their beliefs.

He said “I think black coal matters is more important than (wait I shouldn’t say black lives) ummm criminals in jails!! Ahh yea… they’ll know what I mean.”

I was ready to comment something about west virginia but vice did a swerve and went Australia with this nice...btw coal is a dying commodity that serves little purpose anymore that can be replaced with something else.

The person being interviewed at 30:00 seems quite reasonable (apart from the horse thing, I think that was a mistake). He seems to actually be generally current on things and his concerns about livelihood is valid, and it's people like this who need to be helped to transition to other careers that have better longevity. And I genuinely mean something like programming/IT/tech, something he can do where he lives already, pays well, and has a good future. And to those who think people like this can't learn programming or technology, you're wrong and I can prove it. I've literally trained people who are scared of technology on how to use it, and that includes programming-type work.

hmm, i wonder what the horse drawn carriage makers thought of that newfangled contraption people were calling the automobile.

For me, what was said at the beginning of the video of about the Black Lives Matter movement really says everything about this topic. These coal miners, everyone dependent on his industry, they have their views so heavily skewed by their own personal experience that they cannot attempt to see someone else's perspective. They feel like everyone else should take care of everyone else and they'll just worry about themselves.

These people's opinions will never change. No one can accept that there way of life is hurting others.

Why aren't there subtitles? The video on VICE's site has subtitles. PLZ I want to screen this at a local meetup and subtitles would immensely help, if anyone knows where I can get a srt/vtt file

regardless of whatever the energy source is, we will still need gas, oil and coal for our daily lifestyle

I hope this guy reads this message... You are not a failure at what you believe in. Even if you catch the ear of a few, it more then anything any of us have accomplished. You may not have things you want doing this but you got my respect in your movement. I hope you are blessed on this journey. I hope you keep on fighting and making progress 🙏🏾

This feels like West Virginia

The problem with these people is that they cannot see beyond the industry that has built their community and livelihoods. Because of that, they become so defensive of their way to earn a living. Then, confirmation bias completely takes over their brains to where they cannot hear or even try to understand real science. In a way I feel sorry for them, but then I hear how ignorant they speak the people that want to bring awareness of how fossil fuels are destroying our atmosphere. They have dug themselves in so deep that there is no way they can see beyond their own bias. Truly sad.

I've worked in those exact mines, in those exact towns around Clermont, Collinsville, Moranbah, Dysart, and as someone on the left, it is very very hard to coal miners.

As usual Vice at it again with top-notch journalism, out in the field talking to real people! I do climate change research, and I love this video. If there's any hope of restoring trust in science, that hope is in talking to people and listening.

Man, imagine the emotional drain he must have felt after days/weeks it prob to took to film all of these conversations. He was so delicate and tactful with his wording to not be offensive to either side, yet still open the door to change. Excellent journalism, so humble and kind. I feel for both sides after seeing this. The importance of nuanced decision making is highlighted so well

This is not pro coal or pro climate change, is strongly pro people. Governments need to get solutions to this people… not just let them die

This really touched the most important part of the problem with our world today. It’s the divide between right and left that’s being pushed by politicians. There is a growing separation and inability to communicate with the “other” side when really we are all just humans looking for a little stability and happiness for our families. I come from a very liberal family who all live in liberal areas with people who agree with them so no real progress is made. I made a point to stay blue collar and and liberal at the same time. I can communicate with both sides and understand the humanity of everyone. If more people left their comfort zone thing’s would be better.

i love people who pretend to be "country" but think that having cheap utilities is the meaning of life. if you're worth your salt as a rural man, you already have a hobby interest in building your own sources of power and limiting the amount you rely on the world you have no control over. these spoiled idiots act like their work is a gift to us, as if it doesn't carry a steep price. my harvest is worse because of their way of life.

I've seen so much bad sides from all types of American media, but there are plenty of Vice (and other) documentaries that have amazed me and this is amazingly balanced and well done.

besides the whole coal conversation, everyone was very wholesome and it was nice to see people with such different opinion sharing their thoughs ...really cool

the coolant that goes into the steam engines can be caught and put thru a water cool loop system for other stuff.

People who say that climate change is a scam annoy me the most. I see climate change as a major issue but also figuring out what people will do who currently work in the fossil fuel industries is also a challenge. Both sides need to acknowledge the validity of the other’s concerns before their can be a real conversation.

This is a fantastic doc! We need governments to commit to a green jobs transition!

Typesetting was huge for a long time up through the 1980's. Highly skilled people doing highly skilled tasks on highly proprietary and expensive equipment it took years to master for high production. Then came desktop publishing. It wiped out an extensive and spansive legion of specifically skilled labor for a job that was not glamorous, but it paid well and for a very long long time, provided job security and drew respect from those who knew the importance of typesetting. Typesetters - in the Print Industry, think newspapers, magazines, books, etc. - originally were the ones who in the old days would literally put the physical letters in the printer that printed the letters onto the page. In modern times, text came from DOS (later Mac) computers, the typesetters would then according to direction, set the proper font at the proper size and style, then output it onto an almost vinyl-like roll paper. That paper with the text was then cut up with a razor blade in what was called "paste up", and with hot wax the cut up text would be arranged on boards that became the printed page when photographed by a "stat camera" by yet another skilled person. Well, that person who did the photographing of the boards, along with the typesetters, along with the paste-up department - all lost their careers in a matter of a couple of years. Guess what? They had to find new careers practically overnight. These jobs had unions attached. No matter. Desktop computers changed everything. The future was written, and few people outside the industry had a clue. Certainly, it was never a political football. No one came running to stop the change. No one fought to keep the old methods around. No one insisted keeping these people employed in a dead career. No one offered special training or financial help for alternate careers. No one stumped at the podium in the name of the typesetters and that whole side of dying skill sets that went with. Change happens. You change with it, or you die, or fail, or whatever term you prefer there. Coal is a dead end industry. We have alternatives of various flavors, that do not pollute like coal, nor sicken workers like coal. Clean Coal, is an oxymoron, created by politicians stumping for votes, and those from the industry who simple refuse to accept the change that is upon them. I remember when the typesetting machines were getting pulled out from where I worked, to where in over just two months, there was finally one left, with one operator. She was in her late 40's, typesetting was all she knew how to do at a level that paid her to afford a home and have a decent life. I remember on breaks I would find her in tears, terrified, not knowing what to do when they came from remove her typesetting machine and lay her off. Even though it was common to get a nice severance when you got laid off back then, that severance didn't include any help for re-education. If you didn't have savings or other resources to fund a career change, you were headed for the gutter. At any rate, with all that said, it is beyond time we move past coal. Am all for programs to help re-educate and train those in coal, into related fields or other they find practical. It's sure a lot more than others got along the way when their careers were up-ended by change back in the day.

This is the dialog we need. Real dialog and real solutions. Not finger pointing, yelling and making more enemies. Instead of protesting, how about setting up a program at a local community college to re-train and help place these hard working people into high paying jobs installing solar & maintaining the new systems.

Never would have guessed that Australia mines so much coal 😬

We just need to remember: 1. We borrow the environment from our children. What do we have to give back to them? 2. All that glitters is not gold!

It's pretty simple; sooner or later, the demand for coal will diminish so much that the mines will close naturally. Might take a few more decades, however, it will happen. So let it happen. If the forecasts for electric car batteries are correct, demand will move to lithium or other minerals which Australia has in abundance. The towns might die but new ones will be built.

I'm european and I didnt get some of the socio-cultural nuances of the problems down there. I get this though - blaming the workers for what is happening is the wrong path. They are dependent on their wage, which they work hard for. The problem you face with your activism Kim, is that you're only facing the consequence of a problem, not it's cause. Our economic system is based on exploitation. Not only of the workers but also natural ressources. It is in integral part of it and would not function without that fact. The alternative would be a radical change in how we produce the goods (like energy) we need. But for that we would have to change the ownership of the means we need to produce into public hands. Only then, without the intend and need to exploit, because nobody would actually profit from production, we could make meaningful changes. Changes that go beyond greenwashing promises. What we need to do Kim, is to abolish capitalism.

I'm wondering if the term just transition is used and understood in the conversation in Australia surrounding coal. Because most of those coal miners have valid points about worrying about their livelihoods and the future of their area and if those can be addressed in a just transition then that's fantastic.

The fact that we get free documentaries on RU-vid by VICE News is truly a gift 👍

21:04 the autogenerated subtitles described the chirping of a bord as music! So beautiful 😊

I love that video because the situation of australian coal miners is very similar to the situation of oil sands workers here in Alberta, Canada. We have towns like Fort McMurray that are 100% reliant on the oil sands industry and that would close if the industry had to totally collapse. These workers are not the problem. These people are blue collars who do manual jobs, and natural ressources are often the only jobs that pay them a good salary to live a lifestyle similar to the one of more educated white collars. Otherwise, they'd work in factories or warehouses for a bad pay. They don't destroy the environment just for fun and intentionnally. All they want is a future. So the best way to move forward is to create these people high paying jobs in the green energy sector, and for that, we need political change. It's useless to try to educate them on climate change. Many of them have no idea what climate change is and they're convinced it's an argument used by urban people to destroy their lifestyle.

It's so refreshing seeing people from opposite ends of the political spectrum coming together to have an open and honest conversation. We need more of this!

I must say the deliberate ignorance and inability to look to the future, and wanting those who are telling them this to all die of these people is astounding, and disturbing.

I love this film where there is a sympathetic look at the lives of the people in the coal mining country. My heart goes out to everyone, from the activist to the people whose lives depend on the coal industry. Great job Kim!

Coal is clean - zero emissions since I was in high school in the mid 1980's. That's in almost all western countries. China is a different story. The only thing that comes out of a coal power plant is good old CO2 (plant food) - scrubber tech is so good these days. And in the past 10 years there is even secondary "scrubbers" that turn that CO2 into a nice black powder that's used for the manufacture of carbon fiber, and other carbon based composites. If it's mined sensibly coal is a very VERY "green" energy source! As far as "climate change" is concerned mankind is responsible for only about 5% of it. It is happening and mankind contributes to it but it's miniscule. Studies show that even if we shut down EVERYTHING across the entire world until 2100 it would NOT even reduce the temperature by one degree by then. So yeah, we should probably try and seek other energy sources but coal and oil doesn't need to be eliminated with any urgency AT ALL.

Thanks for creating this video and demonstrating the tone and approach on how to have non-combative discussions about climate change. The content was opposite of what I was expecting: interviews that make light of people's ignorance or make them look evil or live in denialism. These coal miners are real people of course, and surprisingly do have concerns about climate change, yet not sure how to break away from decades of tradition.

"climate chance it changes 4 times a year" --- i physically cringed

For 13 years now, I have been building wind farms. 2,100 MW. All stages, all different crews leading teams to safely, effectively and efficiently build Enercons, Vestas, Siemens, GE, GoldWind, Siemens Gamesa wind turbines. It was premuim and costly...but now it is the lowest cost option and we need workers like crazy and we pay them very well. Let's build our renewably powered global economy together!

Asking the miners what their source of knowledge/research on the truth about climate change was an absolutely amazing question to ask. The poor guys fumbled over it, possibly because they didn't want to admit to listening to sky news or some other specific centralised publications, or possibly because the truth is they have no evidence, they just refuse to lose their current livelihoods. It's really very sad and I think most of the comment section here agrees. Help these poor people out with training and job transitions and show them the light (solar powered ofcourse) without leaving them behind.

The coal industry is using the same arguments that the horse & cart industry did when cars were replacing them. Germany went through the same thing when they shutdown the coal mining industry. They offered each worker early retirement with large settlement packages. To those that wanted to continue working, they provided training / schooling and also helped them go straight into new jobs. We can do the same here.

This is fantastic! I love how this was handled. And I think the main thing to take away from this is that it really is up to our leaders both government and corporate to fix this. We need better options. It’s unrealistic to ask people to throw away their livelihoods without any program or plan for how to replace it. It leads to people stubbornly denying reality out of spite for their current situation. That’s a huge takeaway here. I too am not willing to give up using my car just because it’s killing the climate when electric cars are still too expensive and too difficult to charge on long trips. And that’s orders of magnitude easier than changing careers. That’s not even the same thing. So until we get cars that are actually cheaper and better and more convenient, most people are going to keep driving gas cars. Until there are industries that replace coal and give people a shot, people will continue to mine coal. It’s that simple. And these miners are not the problem, and yelling at them for being climate change deniers is no going to change anything. It’s highly ineffective. You want change, give people a better option. That involves innovation, investment, incentives etc.. Don’t bother the coal miners, go bother the politicians, or better yet, go find a better solution by innovating or doing it better and just vote for people who prove to not be in line with coal company agendas.

the huge companies management will all be DEAD when the affects of what they are doing now will be HELL for their own KIDS

Very interesting piece. I can understand the basic fear of the people in the industry, and hence their reluctance to discuss or explore the issues. We need the government to be more proactive rather than leaving these people vulnerable in a way that creates barrier to change, as it's not fair on anyone and just perpetuates the current problems.

This was handled very well. Most coal miners don't have some idealistic reason for not wanting things to change, its just that their livelihood depends on them having a job. Give most of them a similar-paying alternative, and most would jump for it. The miners aren't the bad guys. I feel like a lot of people want to treat them as such. Keep in mind that in a lot of places, this line of work was really really good money for the area in question. They would have been dumb not to go for it when they were younger.

This was a fantastic piece of work. Thank you for working towards a just energy transition that provides jobs to those who will lose theirs.

This was amazing! Fantastic journalism, about time!

It's amazing what honest conversation can achieve. We have to stop talking AT each other and do more LISTENING. All of us.